Cool. I'm just nailing down some details for my next laser guitar and other projects to see what I can do with all these BBD devices I've got now. To cram four KS filters into a guitar body along with all the other circuitry will be tricky, to say the least, so I need to cut corners where I can. One thing I'm considering is removing the expo control of the VCF and subbing in that block from this circuit, to reduce the number of LM13700s I need. I find that I've usually got the VCF tuned to give the most "sustain" possible so expo control isn't really necessary for my application.

I can't add much to the intellectual side of this discussion, but I love the idea, and the fact that it is a small analog implementation. I like to build and play, build and play, and sometimes learn (by osmosis?) along the way. I figure since it is based on your KS and BS work, that anything I learn with my current KS project will help me understand the CCS, be able to modify it, and hopefully contribute in these cool development discussions in the future.

Well time has flown by since the last post and I never did get organized about making this product. However, I am happy to report that I did recently make a percussion circuit in an actual enclosure and documented the project in the following thread:

I found the process of documenting my work and sharing it to be at least half of the fun of actually building it. Plus there's a real excitement factor when people post with enthusiastic comments. Some of us just love to see all these technical details and have them explained for our entertainment purposes. It's nerdtastic fun!

Since I'm so pleased with my progress on the first box, I thought I'd make a second box based on this credit card synth concept. It's a small enough circuit to fit on a printed protoboard sheet which I have in a BB sized box. I really like the guitar footpedal BB box as it is small yet weighty and solid. When you heft it in your hand, it feels like a piece of equipment not a toy.

OK let's talk about the CCS schematic as shown below in graphical form. It has a CD4060 counter because that one of the CD4020/CD4040/CD4060 series has an on-board oscillator. I don't have any of those in stock. I just have CD4020 and CD4040, and I'm tight on cash as always so I must make my parts order from one place only for this project. That place will probably be smallbear electronics because they have the boxes and box accessories that I need. Long story short, I'll need an external oscillator.

The schematic has one major error: the CV input of the 555 oscillator in the upper left corner should be connected to the CV output where the aggregation resistors tie together (after the logic gates). That will enable the sound of the KS loop to change in response to the BS output.

I am tempted to use linear CMOS because it would eliminate the artificial ground while providing six amplifiers instead of four. However, there should only be a need for four amplifiers so I think I will stick with the TL074 opamp.

Also the volume and output driver section is a bit of a mess and needs tidying up. I will think of something cleaner to use there. Possibly an emitter follower to act as a headphone amplifier.

Instead of a patch panel, there will be some switches for changing up the music. Also I may use some pots in the aggregator section. The only problem is that brings me up to six pots and about four switches, which will not fit with an internal battery in a BB size box. So I may go up one size on the box, we'll see.

Well, those are my thoughts for now. I'll keep you posted on progress as it occurs.

OK, it's now five hours later and I had fun chatting with folks in the electro-music chatroom and took a little time to study the way cool products offered at smallbear electronics. I settled on the following project box:

of which I plan to order quantity four with black chicken head knobs, color matching the potentiometer knobs that I already have. What's cool about those switches is that I can apply six different combinations of inputs to each of the four logic gates, and also use two potentiometers as the aggregation network much like I did in the previous percussion project. That will provide plenty of adjustability to the note sequence and logic product weighting, resulting in a huge number of possible song sequences from the Boolean Sequencer.

I'm also ordering a 9V wall transformer and corresponding 2.1 mm panel mount jack, so no more batteries required and lots of room in the box. Finally, a 1/4" jack and some stick-on rubber feet complete the project. I'll have both 1/4" and 1/8" outputs which will provide connection flexibility.

I already have a printed circuit board with breadboard-like pattern on it for wiring up the circuit and I'm not sure but I believe I do have all the chips and sockets required. Only the BBD and logic chips need be socketed because those are the ones that someone might want to change for different sounds.

The next step is to begin breadboarding the circuit and drawing the schematic. Well, after a little rest, that is.

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